Pycnogonids, the sea spiders Their role in marine ecology

Abstract

Pycnogonids, popularly known as sea
spiders, are a strange group of entirely
marine arthropods belonglng to the phylum
Arthropoda and class Pycnogonida (Gr.
pyknos = crowded; gony = knee), which
means 'knobby knees'. They are more
closely relaled 10 spiders rather than to
crustaceans (shrimps, lobsters, etc).